


A Bit of Color, At Last

by Chef_Rowl



Series: Operator Tinleah and co. [1]
Category: Warframe
Genre: i'll update the tags as i write don't panic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-30
Updated: 2019-04-30
Packaged: 2020-02-10 05:49:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18654193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chef_Rowl/pseuds/Chef_Rowl
Summary: Tinleah has been in this game for some four years, and she's just bored with it all. She and her cephalon, Solise, just kill time for the most part, drifting listlessly around the system. That is, until Solise intercepts an interesting transmission from a Corpus frigate in orbit over Alad V's old workshop. Finally, something to break the monotony!





	A Bit of Color, At Last

 “Operator...”

The gentle, motherly voice roused Tinleah from her sleep. The Tenno rolled over in bed and pulled the sheets tighter around herself. “Mphm... Solise has it been nine hours yet?”

“Um, no, but-”

“Then it can wait.”

“But... Operator, there’s something you need to see. Or hear, rather.”

Tinleah grumbled but rolled onto her back and opened her good eye. “Fine, show me.”

The ceiling of her quarters lit up softly as Solise projected a video message onto it. It was little more than a scrolling list of numbers that mostly meant nothing to Tinleah, but the voice speaking from off-screen meant a lot. It was characteristically garbled from a quickly-decoded transmission, but the words were easy enough to make out.

_The first prototype is running well, though I am keeping power low. My Transference chair works perfectly, and I’m able to control Aardwolf from orbit. Tests are ongoing, but I’ve already begun retooling Alad’s old assembly line. The only issue now is cost-effectiveness. My prototype required the disassembly of one Mag frame, one Nova frame, and several crates of MOA spare parts. Though, there was a lot of material left over, so I feel it shouldn’t be too difficult to trim down the material costs in time for full scale manufacturing. In any case, this will be a landmark in Corpus weapon development, especially in anti-Tenno measures. Despite the high material costs, I’d be able to sell Aardwolf for a 340% profit, at least. They’ll eat it up. I’ll be the richest woman in the Origin System by the end of this fiscal year... End log._

Tinleah kicked the blankets off and jumped out of bed, clad only in her fuzzy Kuaka fur pajamas. “Do we have a source?”

“Yes: Themisto, Alad V’s old workshop on Jupiter. There’s a Corpus frigate in geosync orbit above it.”

“Let’s go, I need to see this for myself. It might just be a Zanuka derivative, but I doubt it.” She was already walking out of her quarters as she said this, brushing past the lifeless fish tank in the middle of the room.

“Alone? I’m not sure the Lotus would approve-”

“The Lotus is gone, Solise. We haven’t heard from her in over a year. Stop arguing, get the orbiter to Jupiter,” Tinleah snapped back, but there wasn’t any malice in her tone. The cephalon complied in silence. Tinleah felt the deck under her bare feet tremble as the engines sprung to life, driving her mobile home out of its hiding place on the edges of the Void.

She took a shower while they were underway; it’d be another hour or so til they made Jupiter, and Tinleah prefered to feel clean before she sealed herself into the Transference chair, down in the bowels of her Orbiter. That, and the cold water helped her focus; her mind was running a million miles a minute with the implications of what she had just heard. If the Corpus really could mass produce warframe-esque proxies... She shuddered at the very idea of it.

Tinleah took her time drying off in the shower’s air jets, allowing the warm air to completely blow away the cold water. She was much quicker to slip into her Transference suit, which had been lying in a heap on the floor where she had left it after her last sortie. Fully dressed, she took a moment to breathe deeply and stretch, relishing the feeling of the slightly-constrictive synthetic leather shifting and creaking against her pale skin. An eyepiece fastened over her right eye, her bad eye. She also put on a mask that covered the lower half of her face; it was a gift from Maxis, her closest friend, though it had been some time since they last spoke. Once her red-and-black hair was tied back into a small neat braid she jogged to her Transference chamber.

As she approached her chair, the large, ancient device opened up with a familiar series of clicks and thumps and hisses. Even though Tinleah wasn’t a fan of being cooped up inside that fancy coffin, she smiled affectionately at the familiarly of it. She pulled her hood up and closed, then jumped up into her seat.

The chair sealed her in and her vision went blank for the moment it took to connect to Datura, her Saryn Prime, her first and favorite Prime, the first to talk back to her. Some fleeting thoughts in Datura’s mind were chased away as Tinleah’s consciousness was gently but firmly squeezed into the warframe.

She, that is, Datura under Tinleah’s control, rose from her knees and strode purposefully to the nose of the orbiter, where the Mantis-class landing craft was waiting for her. She caught a view out the forward window as she went. Jupiter, that beautiful giant orange ball, cluttered by boxy, ponderous, gaudy Corpus ships and stations. The faceless warframe didn’t react to the view apart from a brief pause at the window before continuing to her Mantis.

“Two minutes til launch, Operator,” Solise informed her. She always did like her cephalon’s voice; deep and motherly, much like the Lotus upon reflection, but without the condescending undertones and ever so slight shrill the Tenno’s matron spoke with.

“Thanks Solise, I’m mounting up now.” Datura didn’t speak so much as emit Tinleahs voice from her faceplate. It was a slightly unnerving phenomenon for those not familiar with the Tenno, or for those who had previously only interacted with Tenno who had yet to break their vow of silence. What few other Tenno that Tinleah was familiar with had renounced that pointless discipline ages ago, Maxis especially, but there were still plenty that she met in passing who exchanged little more than a polite wave or courteous bow.

Datura stepped into the belly of the Mantis. The compartment rotated around and sealed the warframe inside like it had thousands of times before. Datura’s systems linked into the Mantis, and Tinleah “saw” through the landing craft’s sensor suite. She wiggled its engine nacelles and revved the thrusters, ready to go.

Solise gave her the green light and the Mantis rocketed away from the orbiter. It streaked down past the Corpus blockade unseen and was passing over Themisto within a few minutes. Sensors showed nothing new, no special security measures, not even a passing cargo shuttle. It looked exactly how it had years ago when Alad V up and disappeared, and that made Tinleah suspicious. Instead of a close landing like usual, she swooped over the station and triggered the “slingshot,” firing Datura like a bullet at the station.

She punched through the outer wall and landed hard in a four-point stance. Datura slowly stood, hefting her Tiberon Prime, and took stock of the room she had landed in.

There wasn’t much to see. It seemed to be a closet, or maybe a lavatory; she never could tell with Corpus architecture. What mattered more was that the lights were on. The Corpus were fastidiously frugal if nothing else; no abandoned station would have lit lights. Someone, or some _thing_ , must be here. Datura moved out of the small room into the hallway and began searching the station for signs of life.

Nothing. An hour of trotting around revealed precisely nobody. No spare clothes, no powered-down MOAs, no misplaced Prova. But every room she checked was lit up. And the complete absence of anything was more alarming than reassuring. No matter how selfish or meticulous a people might be, there is always something left behind when thousands of people move out. _Worse than that, I’m sure someone’s watching me_.

“Solise, anything?”

“No, Operator. I’m reading power throughout the station, but no lifeforms. I’m not reading any transmissions to or from the station either.”

 _That’s even worse..._ “What about isolated power readings, like a proxy?”

There was a brief pause. “Nothing that could be a Zanuka or even a MOA. Just Datura and your friend down there.”

“I came alone...” Datura spun on the spot, frantically scanning every nook of the large room she was standing in. “Solise, double-check yourself. I’m the only one who came down to this platform, right?”

Another pause. “I’ve triple-checked my sensors, everything is running green. I read the station’s power grid, Datura, and one other warframe of unknown type... strange.”

 _Shit_. “Where is it!? I haven’t seen anyone else!”

“It... appears to be some levels above you, I can’t get a clean lock onto its location. The power appears weak.”

“Do you remember what we heard not two hours ago? Get me as good an estimate as you can, I have to destroy this ‘Aardwolf.’”

Solise complied without a reply, and a moment later a ping appeared in the corner of Tinleah’s vision. _The top... Alad V’s old stomping ground._ Datura took off running, slinging the Tiberon over her back and pumping her arms as she ran like only a warframe can, bouncing off obstacles, climbing up shear walls, leaping over impossible gaps.

Maybe a minute later, she was standing outside the door of the room Solise had marked. It was the only locked door she had encountered yet. She drew her rifle and held it ready to fire as soon as the door opened. “Solise,” she said.

It took but an instant for Solise to hack into the door and force it open. Datura didn’t move for an instant more as she analyzed what was through the door.

Darkness. The one spot on the station not bathed in artificial light. But then, a pinpoint of light. It moved towards her.

“Tenno!” a female voice called out from the light, sounding pleased. It was the voice from the recording. “I didn’t expect to see one of you come so soon, but I’m glad to see you nonetheless. Would you help me with the first live-fire test of Aardwolf?”

Shutters along the room’s walls snapped open, and the orange light of Jupiter lit up the room. It was alarmingly familiar; Alad V had fought here, along with his Zanuka prototype. Tinleah remembered teaming up with a few fellow Tenno to try and stop the madman from continuing his abominable project, but his death never seemed to stick. He was gone now, but here she was again.

Aardwolf stood in the middle of the floor. It appeared to be a warframe on first glance, but a second look revealed legs much like a MOA’s, two arms and a torso cobbled together from two different frames and some MOA derivative, and a boxy head that regarded Datura with a single glowing vertical slit of an eye. There were MOA turrets on each hip, and a large box on its back. It was a slender, vaguely female, almost fragile-looking figure that stood with a distinctively warframe-esque posture. Tinleah shivered at the sight of it; though it was a mere machine, warframes were ancient works of art as well as mighty instruments of war. This... _thing_ before her felt blasphemous.

“Operator, the other warframe’s power output is rising. It’s currently at 480% of what I read before you approached this chamber, and still rising.”

“Yes, thank you Solise. That message we intercepted wasn’t a bluff; see if you can backtrace the Transference signal. Now that you know to look for it, we should get at least a vague location.”

Tenno and cephalon communicated this in the moment it took for Aardwolf to fully power up and charge at Datura, still standing in the doorway. She fired, expecting to tear this mockery apart. _Braap braap braap_ went the Tiberon, but the bursts of gunfire were easily soaked up by Aardwolf’s shields. Tinleah didn’t have time to react before Aardwolf shoulder-charged Datura, bowling her over.

Datura quickly sprung to her feet and drew her sword; a sepfahn she had constructed with Hok’s help back in Cetus. She ran a finger along its edge, using Saryn’s power to coat the blade in deadly poison. Aardwolf turned towards her and braced itself in a wide stance. The turrets on its hips glowed for a fraction of a second before a railgun slug fired from each.

Datura batted both away with practiced reflexes, then charged with her sword held low to the side. Aardwolf danced backwards with Tenno-like agility, then reached over its shoulder and pulled something out of the box on its back. It threw a small ball upwards and an osprey appeared in a cloud of smoke. _She reverse-engineered specter clones too?_ It opened fire, a river of blindingly-bright laser bolts streaming down at Datura.

She shed her skin and redoubled her speed, ducking under the laser fire that was now concentrated on the decoy. That move was as familiar to Tinleah as using a pen, but it was confusing enough for Aardwolf to buy her a second.

A second was all she needed.

Datura swung her sword backhanded; the barbs on the end of the sepfahn gashed open Aardwolf’s stomach. Coolant and sparks poured from the wound as the voice on the other end of the Transference link screamed in pain. The toxin on her blade ate away at the metal and fabric, causing more damage between strikes. Two more swings and the torso was barely recognizable as such.

One more, and Aardwolf collapsed to the floor, its legs severed at the knee. Datura drove her sword through Aardwolf’s shoulder and pinned the proxy to the floor. She glared--as much as a warframe _can_ glare--at Aardwolf’s eye as she drew her sidearm and fired at the osprey behind her without looking. It exploded in a shower of scrap and smoke.

Aardwolf’s operator had stopped screaming, but was still groaning and whimpering in pain, clutching at the sword. It watched as its hand melted for the toxin that made Saryn an infamous fixture among the Tenno’s enemies.

“Just a cheap knock-off after all,” Tinleah mocked; her voice, amplified by Datura, reverberated in the hallway. The floor seemed to tremble as she spoke. “You don’t even have safety triggers installed. You have not learned to endure the pain through the Transference link. You carry no weapons. You can barely fight. You are pathetic.”

Datura gripped her sword and gave it a wiggle before yanking it out of Aardwolf, drawing another cry of pain from the operator. She sheathed it with a satisfying _shhh-clink_. “But I must admit, it’s a better try than any other proxy I’ve fought. Certainly better than the last lunatic to use this place.”

“You, you knew Alad?” She sounded awed, even through the pain and fear.

Datura turned back to her and growled. “ _Knew_ is a strong word. ‘Loathed’ is probably more appropriate. That arrogant dick hunted down my kin and tore their frames to bits, and all he had to show for it was Zanuka. It would be insulting if it weren’t so tragic.”

“You really think I did better than him?”

Datura just stared, seething behind the emotionless faceplate.

“Operator, I’ve found the source of the Transference. I’ve tagged the Corpus frigate, so we can track it down if it escapes. What should we do?” Solise may usually be a nervous personality, but she knew how to do a job right. A video feed from the orbiter popped into the corner of Tinleah’s vision, highlighting the frigate in question. She responded with a thought, communicating _thanks_ , _wait_ , and a wicked smile.

“So you’re in orbit,” she said to Aardwolf’s operator. “On a frigate. The... _Forsaken Inheritance_ , nice name.”

Aardwolf trembled. “H-how do you know that?”

“I should come see you in person. Have a one-on-one interview. Maybe liquidate some assets.”

“No...”

Aardwolf went limp, the Transference link severed. Datura ran to the nearest window and leapt through it, easily shattering the “cost-effective” glass. Her Mantis caught her after only a few moments of freefall, then rocketed up and out of Jupiter’s atmosphere. “Still have a lock on her ship?”

“Yep, though it just fired up main engines. It’s turning towards the Rail now.” Solise actually sounded a little excited. Tinleah mused that this level of hacking and tracing must have been as welcome a challenge for the cephalon as it was for her.

“Easy pickings.” Her Mantis was already closing in on the _Forsaken Inheritance_ , the slingshot primed and locked on.

**Author's Note:**

> I tried to embed photos but it didn't work out... ah well.  
> This will have chapters that follow a (hopefully) cohesive plot line, but other works in this series will be one-shots and little side bits that I write as the mood strikes.


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